Fintech start-up Chqbook raises funding from Startup Buddy, others

Gurgaon-based fintech start-up Chqbook has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Startup Buddy and a clutch of individual investors, the company said in a statement. Individual investors who participated in the round are Apurva Chamaria, head of corporate marketing at HCL Technologies; former Myntra CTO Sachin Arora; Net Asset Consulting LLP founder Bharat Gupta […]

Startup Buddy provides support functions such as incorporation, accounting and taxation, secretarial compliance, legal assistance and project advisory to startups. It is backed by cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures.

Startup Buddy co-founder and CEO Amit Singhal has joined the board at Chqbook while Chamaria and Arora joined as advisers to the board.

Operated by Nineroot Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Chqbook allows customers to explore, compare, book and get home loans. It is a marketplace for financial products that brings banks and non-banking financial companies as well as distributors and customers onto a single platform.

It operates in four major cities and claims to have over 400 distributors on its platform.
The startup said that it will use the funds raised to expand to 50 cities, and into new loan segments. “Currently, we provide only home loans. We will be adding personal loans and credit cards shortly,” said Vipul Sharma, co-founder and CEO, Chqbook.

Sharma founded Chqbook in June last year along with Rajat Kumar. While Sharma earlier worked at BankBazaar and IndusInd Bank, Kumar previously founded TheMoneyEstate.com and worked at IndusInd Bank.

Sharma said the personal finance segment is ripe for disruption, as more customers book online.

Kunal Singhal, partner at Suresh Chandra and Associates, was the adviser for the transaction.

The fintech sector has been receiving considerable investor interest in the past few months with many players emerging in payments, lending, insurance and personal finance segments. At least 25 fintech startups had raised funding between January and May this year, according to a VCCircle analysis; and the number since then would have only risen.